Screen Name

The email address/password you submitted is wrong or could not be found. Please try again. If you are not a member of the FIFA.com Club, please register first.

The email address/password you submitted is wrong or could not be found. Please try again. If you are not a member of the FIFA.com Club, please register first.

This Facebook account is already present

Your Club account has been locked due to a breach of our Terms of Service. Please set up a new account in line with the Club rules. Review the Club Rules. Alternatively, you can email us by completing our contact form.

Please enter a valid email address

The email address/password you submitted is wrong or could not be found. Please try again. If you are not a member of the FIFA.com Club, please register first.

Big Count

The success of FIFA's diverse investments in the worldwide
development of football seems to be leaving its mark not only with
increasing match attendances and TV audiences but, according to the
latest statistics, also in the number of people around the globe
actually playing the game.

Two hundred and 65 million male and female players in addition
to five million referees and officials make a grand total of 270
million people - or four per cent of the world's population - who
are actively involved in the game of football. These are the
impressive findings of the 2006 Big Count, a FIFA survey of its 207
member associations, which, after being conducted for the first
time in 2000, was repeated last year under the same conditions and
offers an interesting insight into the development of football
worldwide.
The associations were asked to provide FIFA with as many
accurate figures as possible in terms of professional footballers,
registered players over the age of 18, registered youth players
under the age of 18, futsal players, beach soccer players and
unregistered occasional players as well as referees and officials.
All of these groups were then broken down by gender.

In addition, FIFA requested details on the number of clubs and
teams that came under each association's jurisdiction.
Three-quarters of FIFA member associations participated in the
survey, a similar response to that for the 2000 Big Count, thus
making meaningful evaluation a realistic proposition. Although the
quality of information submitted by the associations has increased
significantly in comparison with the study in 2000, close analysis
places a question mark over the accuracy of some of the
details.

For example, it was hard for the associations to estimate the
number of unregistered occasional players because, by definition,
no reliable details were available in this regard. FIFA used Big
Count 2000, a UEFA survey from 2005 and other internal statistics
to supplement missing or implausible data from associations. The
study was also scientifically monitored by a leading social studies
organisation.